Thomas' war works provide the theme of the festival

The writer's daughter Aeronwy will be at the launch in the Dylan Thomas Centre.

Other guests at the event include celebrity chef Keith Floyd and filmmaker Peter Greenaway.

It opens on the anniversary of his 1914 birth and runs until 9 November, the day he died 39 years later.

The event aims to use a mixture of readings, talks, theatre, music, art and film to explore his war poems and other writing during this period.

It will also celebrate other war poets and contemporary writing and art relevant to the theme.

The launch will also see the opening of an exhibition of war photographs of the late American photographer, Lee Miller, considered some of the 20th Century's most powerful images of war.

Thomas' daughter, Aeronwy, is at Thursday's launch event

Miller's son, Antony Penrose, will give a talk about his mother's war images, gathered as she followed the US Army into Germany, at one point even being billeted in both Hitler and Eva Braun's houses in Munich.

Also on Thursday, Aeronwy Thomas will mark the launch of a paperback edition of Gwen Watkins' Portrait of a Friend, about her late husband Vernon's friendship with Thomas.

Mrs Watkins has said Thomas' reputation for hard living was based in fact on "mild drinking and girl-hugging exploits" which would go unnoticed today.

On Friday, Welsh Book of the Year winner, Owen Sheers, and fellow Wales-based poet, Pascale Petit, share their enthusiasm for war poets Keith Douglas and Wilfred Owen, while the war poetry of Edward Thomas is discussed on 6 November.

Other contributors to the festival include the bestselling author Louis de Bernieres, the poets Peter Porter and John Fuller, and evenings with Peter Greenaway and Keith Floyd.

The National Association of Literature Development will hold its regional meeting during the festival, which is open to at all those involved in literature development in Wales.

Festival organiser David Woolley said: "Although this is a festival in honour of Dylan Thomas, it is also a general arts festival with a wide range of entertainment, including music, theatre, art and film.